Knightfall

The last few days of work had been a stagnancy. Hours upon hours of sitting around, an antithesis of a week before. Of the two long sixteen hour days I can recall going into work with the sun in the West and leaving in the morning as it raised in the East, missing out on the night. Those nights were spent under the sporadic flicker of fluorescent lights.

There's nearly 6.5 billion people in the world, an estimated 600 million could be online at any given time. Email, chatrooms, cell phones, all of it a grand network of communication capacity. Even out of the 60,000 plus potential callers at the University, I sat alone at my cubicle without a word. Though I would receive a call ere twilight, I was still very much isolated from the world.

Today I had gone into DoIT for short afternoon work. I got off by early evening and dashed off to the lake. There were yet several more hours until sunset. After rigging my boat I noticed my buddy Stephen teaching a Tech class, his first as an instructor. I acknowledged him with a greeting and headed out.

Past the mooring field were great pockets of wind, perfect for hiking out against the force of the soaring craft. What a feeling. This is where I needed to be, not seated up against a computer screen hours on end. This was my freedom--flying against the weight of gravity. And just like this, I came back into the world.

Once I had my fun I set my course for a small group of boats in the distance. Upon approach I could see it was Stephen out there with his lesson. Though it was a small class, his students sailed all about the lake without direction. One girl in particular was all over the place. On her jibs downwind she would dodge and just narrowly miss the boom from knocking her into the water. Because she was out of instruction's reach I sailed in close to offer help. I gave her some pointers on controlling the boat on the turn but after being thrown about a few more times, she called it a day and I sailed alongside to take her in.

I unrigged while Stephen finished his lesson. In one loud moment, the steam whistle blew foretelling nightfall in an hour's time. We picked up a couple of beers and drank out on the rigging pier, jutted slightly out onto the lake. With the sun slowly drawing in the last moments of light, the uncontrollable force of nature had literally turned day into night--a subtle reminder of our own inability to control change.

041005 (H)

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The Sun by Maroon 5

After school
Walking home
Fresh dirt under my fingernails
And I can smell hot asphalt
Cars screech to a halt to let me pass
And I cannot remember
What life was like through photographs
Trying to recreate images life gives us from our past

And sometimes it's a sad song

But I cannot forget
Refuse to regret
So glad I met you
Take my breath away
Make everyday
Worth all of the pain that I have
Gone through
And mama I've been cryin'
Cause things ain't how they used to be
She said the battles almost won
And we're only several miles from the sun